BRIT Review

David Cameron promises “biggest shake-up of prisons since the Victorian era”

You can’t help thinking that Mr. Cameron had said to his schedulers “please can I go and talk about anything other than the EU referendum.”

Unfortunately, as the PM arrived to deliver a major speech to the Policy Exchange think tank about prison reform, someone at No.10 had briefed the press that leaving the EU meant a Calais style jungle camp would pop-up in Kent. (I imagine that same person has just been offered a 'career development opportunity' at DEFRA)

The first journalist the PM called on seized the opportunity to ask about this (as did others); cue an increasingly red-faced Mr. Cameron. He may have wished he could have stayed a little longer during his earlier visit to HMP Onley.

What he wanted covered was what he described as “the biggest shake-up of prisons since the Victorian era.”

Key proposals:

Six "reform prisons" to be created in England and Wales as part of a pilot to tackle high levels of violence and re-offending. Locations were not confirmed.

Prison governors to be given autonomy over their operation and budgets

The use of satellite tracking will lead to some convicted criminals only spending the weekend in prison

Ministers will work with phone companies to block signals to prisons

Use the principals of free schools to turn young offenders institutions into academies

Allow former prisoners to apply for job positions without declaring unspent convictions upfront

To protect the £130 budget and accept recommendations within the Dame Sally Coates review.

With apparent amnesia that he has been Prime Minister for nearly six years, Mr. Cameron said “failure of our system today is scandalous”. In particular he stated that current levels of prison violence, drug-taking and self-harm led to 600 incidents of self-harm, at least one suicide and 350 assaults including 90 on staff within an average week.

Comments

Post has no comments.

Post a Comment

Name (optional)

Email Address (optional)

Enter Word Verification in box below

Your comment

By clicking 'submit' you consent to us processing your information.

The information you have provided will only be used for correspondence to assist your query. It will not be used for any marketing by us or given to third-parties.